1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage conveyor for garments or articles hanging on clothes hangers, and more particularly to a storage conveyor having a novel hanger removal device at its removal point.
2. Background Art
It is generally considered unsatisfactory to store goods by hanging them on hangers, and then statically hang the hangers on shelf rods. In order to satisfy the increasing demand for dynamism and throughput, storage conveyors have been created by the use of various conveyor means. It is known, for instance, from Federal Republic of Germany OS 25 37 442 to hang material to be conveyed, hanging on clothes hangers, in a hanging carriage (a so-called trolley) which travels on rails, and then to store the trolleys on individual rail sidings, the trolleys being then transported to a transfer station or to the corresponding workplace when the material is needed.
It is also known from Federal Republic of Germany AS 12 27 833 to introduce the garments hanging on clothes hangers into a rotating spindle, the spindle serving as means for both transportation and storage, depending on whether the spindle is rotating at the time or not.
Both the trolley storage and spindle storage systems meet the demand for dynamism, but the trolley system has the disadvantage that only a limited number of articles can be stored on it and the number of articles which can be stored does not necessarily correspond to the number of articles in a batch which are required to be processed. The spindle system has the disadvantage that the points of intersection in the transfer and take-off region do not have the availability which is required for systems of this type since, in order to have sufficient strength, the spindles can only cover a limited storage length. Spindles which are too long would sag.